Under solid-state condition, thermoelectric materials can realize a direct interconversion of thermal and electrical energy by motion of internal carriers (electrons or holes) and is a green and environmental protective energy conversion material.
The work efficiency of thermoelectric devices is mainly determined by the performance of thermoelectric materials. The dimensionless figure-of-merit ZT is an important index to characterize the conversion efficiency of thermoelectric materials. The formula for calculating the dimensionless figure-of-merit isZT=(S2σ)T/κWhere, S is the Seebeck coefficient; and σ is the electric conductivity; and T is the absolute temperature; and κ is the total thermal conductivity. S2σ is also known as power factor (abbreviated as PF), used for characterization of electrical properties of thermoelectric materials; and the total thermal conductivity K is comprised of two parts: lattice thermal conductivity (abbreviated as κlat) and electron thermal conductivity (abbreviated as κele). In 1995, Li et al. reported a crystal material CsAg5Te3 (J. Solid State Chem. 1995, 218:1-4). In this paper, the synthesis of pure phase CsAg5Te3 adopts two-step method. Firstly, the binary phase Cs2Te is synthesized, and then the target product is obtained by reacting with Ag. The total reaction process is taken 10 days.